Follow
Follow
Follow
EmailWhat makes you happy?
Posted Oct 16 2020 in About Jen, Back Home at Firefly Lake, Community, Covid-19, Family, Firefly Lake, Friendship
In the continued and often described “dumpster fire” that is 2020, there are many things that aren’t making me happy. From the pandemic and other world events through to a myriad of concerns in my own life, it’s far easier to focus on stress than joy. Yet, and especially in this particular year, I need […]
Read More...Finding baking memories
Posted Oct 2 2020 in A Wish in Irish Falls, About Jen, Baking, Christmas, Community, Family, Small town life, The Cottage at Firefly Lake
As summer’s warmth becomes a distant memory, I’m doing more baking, a favourite pastime but one I haven’t had much time for in the last few years. To bake, though, I needed to sort through my overflowing kitchen cupboards and the boxes stacked at the foot of the basement stairs, a legacy of clearing out […]
Read More...When tragedy strikes close to home
Posted Jun 26 2020 in About Jen, Community, England, Family, Friendship
I’ve now lived in Canada for almost five years and although England will always be one of my ‘homes,’ my English and Canadian lives rarely intersect. Last weekend was different, though, and I was reminded that despite being geographically distant, my English ‘home’ is, and always will be, close in heart. In England, we lived near […]
Read More...Staying apart but joining together: The rise of ‘caremongering’
Posted Mar 20 2020 in About Jen, Ballet, Community, Family, Home, Reading, Small town life
With the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, in only a few weeks life as we know it has changed almost beyond recognition—and in ways unprecedented in my lifetime—so we’re all adapting to a new normal. Yet, as I stay apart from others (and social distancing is one of the many new expressions I’ve learned […]
Read More...Grit, passion and more: How my hometown shaped my life and writing
Posted Nov 29 2019 in About Jen, Community, Home, Small town life, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing
Last weekend, something extraordinary happened for my hometown (American) football team. After twenty-nine long years, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship. Unlike my late mom, I’m not a football fan. I gleaned the little I know of the game from glimpsing my high school team practicing […]
Read More...Asking ‘what if’ and building a book: ‘The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls’
Posted Oct 18 2019 in About Jen, Community, Family, Small town life, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing, Writing craft
My new book (and first in a new series), The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, came out last week. I’m heartened by how many of you are excited to read the story and touched by the lovely things early readers have said about it. If you’ve already posted a review on Amazon, Goodreads or elsewhere, […]
Read More...New hope and Colouring The World Orange
Posted Nov 9 2018 in About Jen, Community, CRPS, Family, Gratitude
Orange is not my colour. At best, it makes me look sallow. At worst, ill. Yet, this month (dubbed NERVember by the International Pain Foundation), I’m taking pride in wearing orange to raise awareness of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS, also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystorphy, RSD), and support those, including English Rose, battling this […]
Read More...Disconnected from a connected world
Posted Oct 12 2018 in About Jen, Books, Community, Reading, The Cottage at Firefly Lake
If you follow me on social media, you know that I was unexpectedly offline for most of last week when work to lay underground fiber optic cables cut existing cables that deliver landline phone and internet service to my home. As someone who is almost always connected to the wider world, I was all of […]
Read More...Prayers for Humboldt
Posted Apr 13 2018 in About Jen, Back Home at Firefly Lake, Books, Canada, Community, Family, Firefly Lake, Home, Prayers for Humboldt, Small town life
A week ago, on a remote Saskatchewan highway, sixteen people were killed and thirteen others injured in a crash between a semi-trailer truck and a bus carrying players, coaches, a trainer, a local radio announcer and others associated with a Canadian junior (ice) hockey team, the Humboldt Broncos. Before then, Humboldt was a small […]
Read More...Gratitude and new beginnings
Posted Oct 7 2016 in About Jen, Canada, Community, Family, Gratitude, Home, New beginnings, Small town life
My small town has recently welcomed a Syrian refugee family. Soon after their arrival, the newspaper ran a picture of the mom, dad and their three young children playing in the local park. It was an ordinary, yet also extraordinary scene. Our new neighbours have spent the last three years in a refugee camp not […]
Read More...The Latest News
- Jan 04, 2021: Check out my contribution to “3 Goals Every Writer Should Make in the New Year!,” an essay by Sweta Vikram in Brevity Magazine
- Nov 06, 2020: Guest post for Writers First: Why Work with a Writing Coach?
- Oct 30, 2020: Interview with North Grenville Writers Circle for Ontario Public Library Week 2020 (YouTube video)
- Oct 27, 2020: Interview with The Writer’s Pet about my dog, animals in my fiction & ‘A Wish in Irish Falls’
- Oct 22, 2020: Author interview: Chatting with Ruby Moone on the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) blog about ‘A Wish in Irish Falls’
- Oct 13, 2020: Finding Your Writing Voice: Guest Post for Frost Magazine
- Aug 07, 2020: Friday Night Drinks with A Little Book Problem: Chatting about writing,books & life
- Aug 06, 2020: New book news: ‘A Wish in Irish Falls’ releases September 16 & is now available for pre-order
- May 01, 2020: Reading (and Writing) for Hope, Comfort & Happy Ever After: Guest post for Women Writers, Women’s Books
- Apr 22, 2020: Author Q&A: Chatting with Anita Kushwaha about ‘The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls,’ favourite authors, lockdown life & more